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Problems with AA and Church

These questions were part of a survey conducted by Dick B. and are worthy of consideration

Problems You Have Experienced from Those within A.A.

Q1: Have you been told in a meeting not to mention the Bible (either because that is an “outside issue,” because such mention violates A.A. Traditions, or because A.A. is not a “religious program”)?

Q2: Have you ever brought the Bible to a meeting and been told that the Bible is not “A.A. General Service Conference-approved literature” and therefore cannot be the subject of a meeting?

Q3: Have you ever tried to place the Bible or other Christian literature on a literature table and been told that such action violates A.A. Traditions?

Q4: Have you ever organized a Bible study-oriented A.A. group and been denied a listing in A.A. meeting schedules?

Q5: Have you ever mentioned the Bible in a meeting and been told that you could not do so?

Q6: Have you ever received a letter on an A.A. letterhead stating your group cannot be listed because it studies the Bible and that such meetings cannot be held in A.A.?

Q7: Have you ever had a sponsor or a member tell you that you will get drunk if you read the Bible, or that people who read the Bible get drunk?

Q8: Have you ever mentioned Jesus Christ in a meeting and been told that you cannot do that?

Q9: Has any group or meeting of yours attempted to study religious literature such as the Sermon on the Mount, an Oxford Group book, or a Christian devotional, and been told by a member, a committee, or a local office that these items are not “A.A. General Service Conference-approved” literature or that they cannot be studied because to do so would violate the Twelve Traditions?

Q10: Have you ever been denied the opportunity to volunteer or share or lead a group at a treatment center because you talk too much about God, Jesus Christ, or the Bible?

Q11: Has your website or email or submission or link ever been refused by an AA (i.e., a member of A.A.), an (“official”) A.A. web site, or a “recovery web site” because of its Christian content?

Q12: Have you ever tried to place literature relating to A.A. history at a meeting, a conference, or an A.A. group and been told you cannot do so because it is not “A.A. General Service Conference-approved” literature?

Q13: Have you ever tried to get an A.A. group with a name such as “The James Club” or the “Big Book/Bible Study Group” or “A.A. Roots Group” listed in the meeting schedule and been told by an A.A. Central Office, committee, area office, or General Services Office that you cannot do so because of the religious implications of such a name.

Q14: Have you ever been denied a listing of your group in the meeting schedule for the foregoing reason or reasons?

Q15: Have you ever expressed yourself in a meeting with reference to God, Jesus Christ, the Bible, your church, your own religious beliefs, or early A.A.’s Christian fellowship and been attacked verbally during the meeting for doing so?

Q16: Has this happened to you at a treatment center?

Q17: Have you ever been told by a treatment center, a therapist, or another A.A. member that, in studying the Bible, you are substituting one addiction (to religion) for another (alcoholism)?

Q18: Have any of these things happened to you or your group in connection with a sober club?

Q19: Have any of these things happened to you at an A.A. assembly or conference?

Q20: Have you ever received letters on General Services Board stationary or from an attorney for A.A. World Services that tell you that your website, your literature, or your comments are in violation of a copyright or a trademark held by A.A.?

Q21: Have you ever been sued by A.A. or one of its offices for the foregoing?

Q22: Have you ever been jailed at the request of AAs for expressing your views, presenting your literature, or holding your meetings?

Q23: Have scholars or historians or agencies or A.A. “leaders,” or websites barred your letters, emails, or shares on the ground that they were “religious” or they presented “outside issues,” or they violated A.A. Traditions?

Q24: Have you ever been physically attacked at a meeting for any of the foregoing?

Q25: Has your sponsor or his sponsor ever told you not to read the Bible—particularly because such reading might/would negatively affect your sobriety?

Q26: Have either told you that you’d get drunk if you read the Bible?

Q27: Have either told you not to attempt to bring other AAs to Christ?

Q28: To your church?

Q29: To your Christ-centered group?

Q30: To your Bible fellowship?

Q31: Have you read or heard more than a few times that A.A. is “spiritual but not religious.”

Q32: Have you read or heard more than a few times that your “higher power” can be the group, a light bulb, a tree, a door knob, a chair, a rock, a radiator, Santa Claus, Something, Somebody, Her, It, or nothing at all?

Q33: Have you read or heard more than a few times that God as you understand Him means that “God” for you can mean any kind of higher power you choose to “create”?

Q34: Have you heard these things as to a “Power greater than ourselves?”

Q35: Have you heard that it is OK in A.A. to believe in nothing at all?

Q36: Have you heard that A.A. is not a religious program?

Q37: Have you heard that A.A. is not a religion?

Q38: Have you heard that A.A. left the Bible behind in Akron because it didn’t work?

Problems You Have Experienced from Those within "the Church"

Q39: Have you heard or read from those in “the Church” that “A.A. is not of the Lord.”

Q40: Have you heard or read that Christians should not attend A.A.?

Q41: Have you heard that Christians should not attend A.A. because Bill Wilson practiced spiritualism, used LSD, committed adultery, sold niacin, was mentally ill, and/or took royalties?

Q42: Have you heard that Christians should not attend A.A. because Bill Wilson wrote the Twelve Steps by practicing automatic writing?

Q43: Have you heard any of this from those in “the Church” as to Dr. Bob?

Q44: Has your pastor or Christian recovery group tried to prevent you from attending A.A. because of its belief in a “higher power” or because of its belief in “spirituality” (other than or apart from Christianity) or because it is a pseudo-religion?

Q45: Have you considered leaving A.A. or a 12-Step program because you believed you were being unduly persecuted for your Christian beliefs and practices. Or for any of the other reasons mentioned above?